If he weren't such a notorious chameleon, James Ferraro's new Cold mixtape might lead you to believe that he's shifted definitively into beat territory, peeling the quotation marks away from the very timely instrumental hip-hop vibe he's been on and actually trying to master its inner mechanics. For one, he got Daddy Kev of Low End Theory and Alpha Pup fame to engineer it, and while his foray into Auto-Tuned crooning betrays a certain self-conscious amateurism, the boozy, bassy moods on Cold occasionally sound like something you'd actually put on for company during a cab ride in the rain. Stream the tape in its entirety below, or grab a download via Ferraro.
Download: James Ferraro's Cold Mixtape